Byrd added that the Senate’s “chest-pounding” and “saber-rattling”
towards Iran was “deeply troubling,” as the Iraq war has shown
“all too clearly where it leads”:

It is deeply troubling to see the U.S. Senate joining the chest-pounding
and saber-rattling of the Bush administration. I am no apologist for
the Iranian regime, anymore than I was for Saddam Hussein, but I fear
that we may become entangled in another bloody quagmire. We have been
down this path before. We have seen all too clearly where it leads.

We are truly “sleepwalking through history.”
In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good and
trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings.

To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always
be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment
of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack
on a nation which is over 50% children is “in the highest moral
traditions of our country”. This war is not necessary
at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our
mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge
is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps
there is still a way if we allow more time.

At that time, Byrd noted that the Senate was “ominously
silent” and failed to question the Bush administration’s
invasion plan. “There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to
lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war,”
he said. Let’s hope that with Iran, the Senate wakes up before it’s
too late.